


Never Forget

by AwokenMonster



Category: Are You The One? (Season 8), Are you the one?
Genre: Love, M/M, Never forget someone's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 00:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20282104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwokenMonster/pseuds/AwokenMonster
Summary: Max is mad at Justin and Justin doesn't have a clue why. Maybe it has something to do with not remembering what the 17th of august IS.Max/JustinRated T for the show's nature.A happy 26th birthday to the King of Season 8





	Never Forget

**Author's Note:**

> Monster: Hi guys! Such a happy birthday to Max, one of our kings. The next plot I'll probably write, is one where Justin "thinks" he sees Max in the crowd at work. Or I might drop that idea, depends, but so far I haven't dropped a single Jax idea. I've written every idea that popped in my mind so far. Enjoy.
> 
> I don't get why we got all cute Jax stuff in the first six weeks and then they decided to torture us with bad previews for the next 4 episodes while they do contain some cute Jax moments. Like... it's not funny anymore. It's just annoying now. Plus most challenges so far have been forced pairs and not pairs of their own choosing so it's not really that hard to guess why they're not getting any perfect matches next episode.

Justin checked his phone for the fifth time in five minutes. He just got home and expected Max to blow up his phone with little text messages all over again. It was a habit Max had. Just typed and sent whatever entered his mind, whatever he wanted to tell Justin. Justin didn’t mind. He loved max’ loving, caring and supportive nature and the messages always made him smile.

Sometimes the texts could be something as stupid as “Someone wrote ‘Match’ instead of ‘Max’ on my Starbucks cup lmao.”

Followed by “Lmao makes me think of a French cat saying ‘le mao’.”

Just little messages. It was all they had. The distance had been hard on both of them. With Max in Los Angeles and Justin in New York, you really didn’t have much more than cute messages and an occasional video conversation. Maybe an IG Live they could have fun with, but they couldn’t spoil anything for the viewers. The distance made an exclusive relationship nearly impossible so while they did have deep feelings for each other, they had agreed not to make it official. Maybe they would be in an official relationship one day, but not with the large distance between them.

The distance was probably the reason why Max texted him so much. It was a nervous little habit to make sure Justin still remembered Max. To make sure Justin wouldn’t forget about him, but how could Justin ever forget Max? Max was always on his mind, even if it was just in the background while he did stuff.

Max was always on his mind.

But when he found zero messages after the brief conversation they had that morning, Justin was a little confused. Had he said something wrong to Max? Usually he found a lot more messages on his phone when he got home. It was suspicious. He got online to see if Max had been active at all on social media, but no, Max hadn’t posted anything today. Maybe it wasn’t personal and Max just wasn’t feeling like talking to anyone right now?

But that wouldn’t make the situation any better, because that meant Max was going through something he didn’t wanna talk about… Did something bad happen? A worried frown appeared on Justin’s face. Maybe it was the new episode coming up. Maybe he didn’t like to see what was about to happen? Maybe?

Max had been affected by every week’s new episode so it could be, right?

_Justin_

No messages? You okay? _9:04pm_

He would’ve put away his phone and get some stuff done if it weren’t for the immediate sign that Max read the message. He waited for the reply… but there was none. _Did Max just put me on ‘read’??_

He scrolled up to the conversation they had in the morning. Try to see a sign of Max not feeling very well.

_Max_

Goooood morning _10:20am_

_Justin_

You’re up late? Good morning _10:25am_

_Max_

Today I’m allowed to 😊 _10:35am_

_Justin_

What’s today? _10:37am_

Since then Max hadn’t replied and Justin didn’t understand, especially now that Max put him on read for some reason. He wanted to ask someone else what was up with Max, maybe Amber because she’d been with him a few days ago in person but he didn’t wanna go behind Max’ back to figure out what was going on.

Instead, he decided to wait and maybe distract himself – but just because he decided to do that didn’t mean he was going to. No, he was gonna check his phone every minute and get annoyed at being put on read.

Aaand then he sent another message.

_Justin_

No messages? You okay? _9:04pm_

_Justin_

Did you just put me on read?? 9:15pm

Max immediately read the message again and Justin couldn’t help but feel his stomach sink. What if Max put him on read again? What if Max was trying to ghost him?? He felt so relieved when he saw “_Max is typing_” appear. It took forever and it stopped a few times before Max finally texted him back.

_Max_

Yeah. _9:20pm_

Justin blinked at the message. Okay, so Max _was_ mad at him for some reason today.

_Justin_

Babe, are you angry with me?? _9:22pm_

Again, Max put him on read and Justin had no clue what to make of it! Was that a yes? He put away his phone in frustration and sat down on the couch to see what was on tv tonight. Yet, he couldn’t shake Max’ weird behaviour today. He shoved it down to a dark hole and tried to forget it. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be. Just wait.

Though when you try not think about something, you always end up thinking about it the most. Justin’s mind was spinning in the direction of Max ghosting him. He imagined what it would be like without Max’ constant support and without him to talk to about literally anything at this point.

The thought really upset him and he couldn’t shake the feeling of dread. Why was Max acting so weird? Why was Max angry with him? Had he done something wrong? He tried to dig into his memories, figuring out what he could’ve said wrong, but he had no clue!

A while later, he got a notification from Twitter. Max posted something. Justin checked it, reading the caption of a group picture; “My uncles and friends threw me a “brunch for dinner” birthday party . So much love. It’s been a crazy year and I’m blessed for another. Let’s make 26 the greatest !!!”

Justin jumped upright. SHIT MAX TURNED 26 TODAY! No fucking wonder Max has been so cold to him all day! He forgot his birthday!

_Justin_

OH MY GOD HAPPY BIRTHDAY IM AN IDIOT _9:40pm_

How could he have forgotten? Max literally told him “The 17th of august. I’m gonna be sensitive if you forget my birthday, babe” and Justin FORGOT anyway! Max reminded him _last week_!

His phone buzzed and he saw Max was calling him to FaceTime. Justin accepted the call, feeling self-conscious about the way he looked for some reason. He smiled when he saw Max’ face. “Happy birthday, babe.”

“Oh save it, you forgot, didn’t you?” Max asked, eyes squinted but he didn’t seem very mad at Justin.

Justin shrugged. “I did… I forgot we were the 17th already. Time just moves so fast since I met you! I need to savour every day.”

“You can suck up to me for another week before I forgive you, babe”, Max teased. “I’d never forget your birthday!”

Justin made a mental note to check if Max would remember his birthday in November – fast forward to the future; Max didn’t and Justin did the exact same thing Max did to mess with him. Though it was a lot harder to pull off because by then they were closer together and in an official relationship.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to”, Justin pouted. “I can’t believe I forgot. Guess I was busy thinking about you as a person. I’ll make it up to you.”

Max laughed at the obvious attempt to suck up to him. “That’s definitely a start to make things up to me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment, they're our heavy fuel!
> 
> AO3 deleted the emojis Max put into his Tweet, sorry.
> 
> Am I the only one who squirmed uncomfortably when Jonathan started singing "I love virgins" in the 8th episode? Like I know it was meant to be cute but it sounded so wrong...


End file.
